


The Third Option

by RunRabbitRun



Category: Legacy of Kain, Thor (2011)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, Gen, Non-Graphic Violence, Unfinished and Discontinued, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-09
Updated: 2011-10-09
Packaged: 2017-10-24 10:37:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/262535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunRabbitRun/pseuds/RunRabbitRun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki and Thor hang out and bond with Kain and Raziel, respectively.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Third Option

Raziel fought like a demon, appropriately enough. Thor had never seen anyone faster except for perhaps Loki or Fandral. He watched the ghoul tear into a vampire hunter with his bare claws and repressed an internal shudder. Raziel’s fearsome visage was difficult to acclimate to, but it was the way he flew at his enemies with a insane viciousness that made Thor glad he had allied himself with the man instead of against him.

…

Kain enjoyed watching Loki fight. His style was once very similar and different from Kain’s; they shared skills in magic and speed, but Loki moved like wind, keeping his distance and striking with his throwing knives or his long spear. Kain preferred getting much closer to an opponent; it was easier to get at the throat that way. Loki apparently was not one for getting his hands dirty, which amused Kain to no end. This new friend was clearly a backstabber, a trickster, but his fastidiousness at actually plying these skills was fascinating. Kain watched Loki twist like a snake, flinging knives from hidden pockets and teleporting behind his opponents with a graceful, almost sensual ease.

…

Raziel could go for days on end without rest, but Thor did require breathers, occasional though they were. Raziel did not complain, however. Rather he gathered wood and cleared a space to camp with an almost fond bitterness. Thor could see how his eyes crinkled in a wry smile as he struck Thor’s flints together to catch the kindling; Thor had seen him fight with magical flames, but Raziel seemed to enjoy doing things the mortal way, so he let him be.

Thor hunted down a rabbit and ate the whole thing himself. He’d offered Raziel half of his kill, but the demon refused. So Thor ate while Raziel watched, and they traded stories. Thor spoke of Loki and his multitude of pranks. He told Raziel of his and Loki’s boyhood adventures and the demon actually laughed; it was a quiet, dry sound, but it was definitely a laugh.

Thor spoke of Loki’s madness and suicide and Raziel suddenly seemed unable to meet Thor’s eyes.

“I was the eldest of six brothers,” he said, long after the rabbit had been eaten and the fire had died down slightly. They had been sitting in silence for a while and Thor wondered what made Raziel decide to speak up now.

“Six?” Thor repeated wonderingly. “And I thought one younger brother was a handful.”

“You have no idea," Raziel said with that dark humor of his.

“What became of your brothers?” Thor asked after a pause. He lay on his back with his hands folded behind his head, looking up at the unfamiliar constellations. He heard Raziel shift uncomfortably.

“In the time that I was falling through the abyss,” he said slowly, and Thor grimaced, forced to imagine what that must have been like, “My brothers evolved, as is the nature of our kind. Their powers grew but they became monstrous. And mad, mad beyond all hope. And I… I slew them.”

Thor sat up and stared at Raziel in shock. “You killed your brothers?”

“Yes.” Raziel tuned his ravaged arm over, examining the ghostly blade bonded there. “I was… I was not in my right mind at the time, I think, but they were… They were no longer my brothers. The men I knew were good as dead, replaced by these creatures, trapped in their own horrid bodies. I cannot say they were mercy killings, for there were no tender feelings in my heart when I killed them, but now I think it might have been for the best.”

Thor could barely wrap his mind around it. Raziel was a kinslayer. His companion had murdered his own brothers… but Thor looked again at Raziel’s flayed body; the twisting blue muscles, the exposed bones, the burning white eyes…

It was not his place, he thought, to judge the actions of one like Raziel, no matter how monstrous they may seemed.

…

“Your eldest, you say?” Murmured Loki. He and Kain had stopped to rest and regroup after a difficult escape from the Sarafan Stronghold. Loki had fought bigger, but he had to hand it to these mortals; they were relentless.

“Yes,” Kain answered, a cruel smile twisting his already twisted face. “Raziel was the eldest of my six sons. He was my finest lieutenant, but he grew… arrogant. Difficult to control. A king cannot have such reckless pride in his court, and a father cannot have it in his get, you see?”

Loki cocked his head. “I see.” Kain laughed at him and Loki scowled, looking more raven-like than ever, perched up on a broken pillar as he was.

“No, you don’t. But it hardly matters, does it? What’s done is done. And Raziel survived, for a given value of survival. If I was wrong to cast him into the abyss, then he may get his revenge on me one day. I would not hold it against him if he did; revenge may not be considered honorable but it is honest.”

Kain looked up at Loki, his yellow eyes glowing softly in the dying light of the day. For a moment, Loki could see the vampire as he must have been when he was young: handsome, noble in bearing, and not without an arrogance of his own.

“You think me cruel?” Kain asked, smiling darkly.

Loki smiled back. “I do.”

The vampire only continued to smile inscrutably. He gave a slight bow. “Honesty.”


End file.
